person who was brought in was not a member of the police force, but a soldier—this was the man who was wearing a soft felt trilby hat .... I was for two years Chaplain to a prison in England, and in the course of my duties not infrequently witnessed the methods which police and prison warders were compelled to use with men detained or serving long terms of imprisonment, and can only say what I saw on this occasion sickened me and filled me with the gravest misgivings. Palestinians themselves also made complaints to the authorities. There are accounts in Arabic of suspects being tortured, being beaten until they were unable to walk, being blown to bits, being left in open cages in the sun without sustenance, being beaten with wet ropes, ‘boxed’ and having their teeth smashed, of having their feet burnt with oil and of ‘needles’ being used on suspects and of dogs being set upon Arab detainees. Palestine Police Force officers and Jewish auxiliary forces frequently had Arab insurgents hold heavy stones and then beating them when they dropped them. Prison guards also used bayonets on sleep-deprived men and made them wear bells around their necks and then dance. Arab prisoners jumped to their deaths from high windows in order to avoid being tortured; some of the torture methods included having their testicles tied with cord, being tortured with strips of wood with nails in, having wire tightened around their big toes, having hair was torn from their faces and heads, special instruments being used to extract fingernails, red hot skewers being used on detainees, prisoners being sodomised, boiling oil and intoxicants being used on prisoners, as were electric shocks, and water was funnelled into suspects’ stomachs. There were also mock executions. Despite protests and revulsion expressed even by British officials and Anglican clergy extrajudicial executions, torture, beatings and general violence remained commonplace responses by the police during the Arab revolt. Notes Further reading Horne, Edward (2003). A Job Well Done: A History of the Palestine Police Force, 1920-1948. Book Guild. (First published 1982 by the Palestine Police) Arab Investigation Centres Organizations based in Mandatory Palestine 1930s in Mandatory Palestine Torture in Mandatory Palestine Violence against men in Asia